10 Million Baby Boomers to have Alzheimer's in the coming decades

2008 Alzheimer’s disease facts and figures

Alzheimer’s Association*

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease is the seventh leading cause of all deaths in the United States and the fifth leading cause of death in Americans older than the age of 65 years. More than 5 million Americans are estimated to have Alzheimer’s disease. Every 71 seconds someone in America develops Alzheimer’s disease; by 2050 it is expected to occur every 33 seconds. During the coming decades, baby boomers are projected to add 10 million people to these numbers. By 2050, the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease is expected to approach nearly a million people per year, with a total estimated prevalence of 11 to 16 million persons. Significant cost implications related to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias include an estimated $148 billion annually in direct (Medicare/Medicaid) and indirect (eg, caregiver lost wages and out-of-pocket expenses, decreased business productivity) costs. Not included in these figures are the estimated 10 million caregivers who annually provide $89 billion in unpaid services to individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. This report provides information to increase understanding of the public health impact of Alzheimer’s disease, including incidence and prevalence, mortality, lifetime risks, costs, and impact on family caregivers.


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7.2. Impact of future reductions in deaths from other causes
As discussed in the Mortality section, the number of
deaths due to heart disease, cancer, and stroke, the three
leading causes of death, is decreasing. As a result, unless
there are new treatments to prevent Alzheimer’s and other
dementias, the remaining lifetime risk of Alzheimer’s and
dementia will increase substantially in the future because
the decreasing number of deaths from heart disease, cancer,
and stroke means that more people live long enough to
develop Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

7.3. Implications for baby boomers

The baby boomers are people living in the United States
now who were born from 1946 through 1964. In 2008, the
oldest baby boomers, people born in 1946, will be 62. The
youngest baby boomers, people who were born in 1964, will
be 44. The remaining lifetime risks of Alzheimer’s disease and
dementia shown in Figs. 9 and 10 apply to baby boomers
who are already age 55 or older. The remaining lifetime
risks of Alzheimer’s and other dementias also apply to baby
boomers who are younger than 55, assuming that they live
to be at least 55. The baby boomer group now includes about
78 million Americans, of whom 27 million are ages 55 to 62 and 51
million ages 44 to 54. Applying the proportions in Figs. 9
and 10, the Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 10 million
of these baby boomers can expect to develop Alzheimer’s
disease in their remaining lifetime (Appendix 16).
Similarly, about 14 million baby boomers can expect to
develop dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
As noted earlier, these figures are conservative because
of the relatively high threshold for including an individual
as a person with dementia in the Framingham Heart Study,
which is the source of the lifetime risk estimates (Appendix
16). True lifetime risk for baby boomers will probably be
greater for this reason. True lifetime risk for baby boomers
will also be greater because deaths from heart disease,
cancer, and stroke will probably continue to drop, increasing
the life span during which the boomers could develop
Alzheimer’s or other dementias.

References

snip... see full text 24 pages ;

© 2008 The Alzheimer’s Association. All rights reserved.


http://www.alzheimersanddementia.org/webfiles/images/journals/jalz/JALZ_739.pdf


Friday, March 21, 2008

Association between Deposition of Beta-Amyloid and Pathological Prion Protein in Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=fulltext&file=000121389


see full text Alzheimer's and CJD i.e. TSE, aka mad cow disease

http://betaamyloidcjd.blogspot.com/

http://betaamyloidcjd.blogspot.com/2008/03/association-between-deposition-of-beta.html


TSS